Posted 5:17 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Featured film: To Kill a Tiger
By Teri Holford, interim Outreach Librarian
To wrap up Women’s History Month, the library is promoting Docuseek, a library database that streams over 2000 independent, social-issue and environmental films.
Featured is the 2022 film To Kill a Tiger, a Hindi-language Canadian documentary film, directed by Nisha Pahuja, which documents a father’s search for justice in Jharkhand, India after the brutal rape of their teenage daughter. The film won multiple documentary awards and was recently nominated for an Academy Award. See the trailer here.
This link takes you to more featured Docuseek films that spotlight Women’s History Month.
Docuseek's collections are not limited to Women’s History Month. The exclusive coverage provides access to content from renowned leaders of documentary films on areas including sociology, anthropology, global studies, area studies, women’s studies, history, political science, criminal justice, health, psychology, the arts, and more.
The Advanced Search feature offers filters by subject, genre, language, title, date, film length, and by the more than 80 languages represented in the collection. Click here to see all subjects covered.
FAQs
FAQs from the Docuseek website:
Help! I get an "Oops! Your location could not be validated." I need to watch the film for a class. What can I do?
You need to be logged in to the university's network to view the film. If you are off campus, you need to connect to the university's network. Typically, do whatever you usually do to access the library's resources from off campus. You should then be able to access the film. If you are still having a problem, use the Contact page and include the name of your college or university.
When I try to view a film, I see the message "the video you are trying to watch cannot be viewed from this website." What should I do?
Please contact support@docuseek2.com and provide a screen shot including the address bar. The player assigned to your institution checks the domain name of the view request, and if the incoming domain doesn't match the domain names we have entered for your institution, the message will appear. This typically is an issue when first setting things up with a proxy server.
How do you authenticate our users?
We primarily authenticate by IP address. When your account is set up, or after you order your first license, we will ask for the IP address range(s) for your institution. We can also use the LTI protocol for authenticating users.
Can instructors add a link to their films to their course pages?
Yes. Each film will have its own permanent link that an instructor can use on a course pages.
Are the films restricted to a particular course?
No. The films are licensed for use by anyone enrolled at or employed by the institution, and also walk-ins to your library.
Do students or faculty need to register on Docuseek2 to view the films we have licensed?
No. We will provide you with permanent links that will access the films without requiring a login, as long as the request is coming from an IP address in the range(s) of IP addresses that you provided us. If you have licensed several titles, we will also provide you with a customer Docuseek2 URL that will log in your users to a generic institutional account, and they will be able to use the Docuseek2 interface to discover and view films.
Can the films be used off-campus?
Yes, as long as the address of your proxy server is within the range(s) of IP addresses associated with your account.
Are titles that we have licensed kept on our servers or yours?
The films are hosted on our hosting platform. For Life of File licenses, we can provide you with a file and you may host the file on your own equipment if you prefer.
Can your servers handle simultaneous users?
Absolutely. Our hosting platform uses a state of the art content delivery system and is designed for many users to access our films at the same time. The main limiting factor will be the capacity of your institution's internet connection.
Can your streaming videos be viewed in a classroom?
Yes, as long as the classroom has an internet connection.
What film quality can I expect?
Most films on Docuseek2 are encoded to four renditions, with a bitrate ranging from 512 kbps to about 2500 kbps. The player uses an adaptive bitrate scheme that will deliver the best rendition that the your network will support. The delivery rate will adjust during playback if the local available bandwidth changes. Our HTML5 player uses HLS (in most cases), which allows some buffering to take place, where the player downloads and stores the next bit of film so it is available as needed.
A 2500 kbps rendition should deliver a very good viewing experience, whether on a computer or projected. But there are other factors that can come into play, including network load and projector resolution.